The Icelandic Phone Book - A Study in Naming Conventions and Emergencies

Men and women from, you know, other nations, nations exactly where they do suitable loved ones names and get in touch with each and every other Mr and Mrs and suchlike, are normally quite aghast when they see the Icelandic telephone book.

The Icelandic telephone book lists every person by their 1st names. Then comes your final name, then your address, then your occupation [to set you apart you from all the other Jón Jónssons, what else?] and ultimately your telephone quantity[s].

Every person is listed by their 1st names in the telephone book due to the fact here in Iceland we get in touch with absolutely everyone by their initially names. We never do Mr or Mrs. Not even when we're youngsters. Your teacher is Gunna. Your friend's dad is Jón. Your president is Óli. Your Prime Minister is Geir. Your friendly neighborhood pop star is Björk. And so on.

In addition to the jovial 1st-name basis, we operate on a program of patronyms, which means that you take your father's very first name and just add the suffix -son [if you happen to be a boy] or -dóttir [if you happen to be a girl]. Björk Gudmundsdóttir is the daughter of Gudmundur. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is the son of Grímur. And so on.

That mentioned, we do have a handful of loved ones names floating about, that have infiltrated the culture all through the ages, for a variety of causes. Names like Laxness, Gudjohnsen, Pedersen, Clausen, Mathiesen ... come to consider of it, a lot of -sens. Thanks to our Danish colonial masters, no doubt.

Our telephone book includes a lot of beneficial data, as effectively. Apart from standard stuff like emergency telephone numbers and so on we also have beneficial facts around points like the tallest mountains and waterfalls in the planet [in case you want to plan your subsequent getaway about that], the longest rivers in Iceland [for river rafting possibilities, probably], the solar program [You happen to be HERE] and all the national flags in the globe [superior to know in case you accidentally wind up in, say, Iraq]. Not to mention Exceptionally valuable information and facts around what to do in case of organic disasters: volcanic eruptions [place a helmet on], hurricanes [make confident your roofing material is safe], flooding [clear your outside drains], mud slides [keep in the side of the property that is furthest from the mountain], snow avalanches [ditto] and earthquakes [dive beneath the nearest table].

Seriously, you could commit hours merely reading the Icelandic telephone book. It really is eminently entertaining and entirely rocks.

Alda Sigmundsdóttir is an Icelandic writer and translator. She runs the preferred Icelandic English-language blogsite http://www.icelandweatherreport.com